A Second Amendment Spring Break, Part 1: Introduction and Hitting the Road

I’m Riley Hayes, and my friend John and I are students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. We have a 10-day spring break to spend, and since neither of us have ever seen many of the sights out west we decided on a road trip! I currently have my Virginia Concealed Carry permission slip, but John’s is still being processed by the state, so as we go we will touch upon the laws that apply in different states depending on whether you have your permit or not.

By sharing this trip and our experiences with carrying in each state, we hope to highlight the sometimes confusing patchwork of laws that different states have enacted that infringe on the Second Amendment, and beat the drum for H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017! This bill does not rewrite any state’s law; it simply protects the right to carry across state lines.

John and I grew up in the same area of upstate New York, so we’re well aware of how restrictive gun laws can be. My hope is that someday, using H.R. 38 as a stepping stone, we will have national Constitutional Carry, without the requirement for a card to exercise our God-given right. Until then, we will use the system that is available to legally make full use of our right to keep and bear arms!

Along the trip, we will stop at as many American landmarks as possible! If anyone would like to see more photos of the trip, follow us on Instagram at @patriotic_spring_break and we’ll post updates to that page with photos throughout the trip! The route the trip can also be found on the Instagram, so if any of you have any suggestions about local diners that are close to the route, please feel free to send them along!

March 16, 2018

Day one of the road trip! Today’s destination is Fort Payne, Alabama, where we’ll stop for the night. We have a clear blue sky and light traffic! On the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee, we slowed to a crawl for about ten minutes, but the CB radio crackled to life an we pieced together that somebody was changing a tire on a big rig, and had taken up the left lane! We extended our drive today by an hour and a half to Anniston, so that our drive tomorrow would be a little shorter. When we pull into Anniston, we’ll get some sleep for an early start in the morning. Tomorrow will be a big day, we’ll see the CMP South store, the Talladega Superspeedway, and then we’ll head for Texas!